Jewish “flying squads” are now busy throughout the Reich answering pleas for aid from Jewish business men subjected to illegal pressure to liquidate their enterprises.
As a result of continued pressure on Jewish business men in the provinces, aimed at forcing them to turn their concerns over to “Aryans,” the Central Bureau for Jewish Economic Relief here has organized a squad of economic advisers who cover the country assisting Jews being forced to sell out their holdings against their will. The bureau is under the supervision of the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden, the supreme Jewish representative body of the Reich.
The two agencies chiefly responsible for the drive to force the Jews out of commerce are the German Labor Front and the Reichsnaherstand, the Government department regulating the distribution of food. These two organizations, which have branches all over the country, have acted in complete disregard of the fact that neither the “Aryan Paragraph” nor the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws have yet been extended to apply to Jews in commerce.
In most cases, however, Nazi district leaders and agencies are a law unto themselves, particularly in the provinces, and do not frequently consult the letter of the law in compelling the “Aryanization” of Jewish enterprises in their domains. Their guiding principle, especially in the past few months, has been to “get rid of the Jews,” and this precept has been obeyed with utmost severity in almost every part of the country.
The new “flying squad” has the difficult duty of challenging extralegal actions against Jewish enterprises taken by provincial Nazi leaders. The squad operates from Berlin, sending representatives to all spots affected.
At present, hundreds of small Jewish communities are hard hit by the free hand given the local Nazi leadership in dealing with the Jews. The smaller the community, the less restricted are the terroristic methods which the local Nazis may employ in forcing the Jews out of business.
In the larger centers, the process is somewhat different. The Nazi aim is attained by depriving Jewish concerns of credits and at the same time pressing them for immediate payment of obligations. Those unable to meet these sudden demands for payment have to see their enterprises auctioned off for a trifling portion of their value to “Aryans” in the good graces of the local Nazi Party.
The “Aryanization” process is being felt particularly in the larger Jewish enterprises which offer a good field of investment, especially when they can be taken over for a small part of their worth.
The Central Bureau for Jewish Economic Relief has also entered into “economic-political negotiations” with higher Government officials in Berlin to whom they have pointed out that the Nuremberg laws do not apply to the field of commerce and that on the basis of the Nuremberg laws the Ministry of Economics has on more than one occasion emphasized that Jews are not to be molested in the field of economics.
It is understood that in some cases high Government officials in Berlin promised to intervene with the local Nazi authorities. Little hope, however, is laid in the efficacy of any measures to have the nation-wide forced liquidation process discontinued. Some relief, however, may be obtained in numerous individual cases.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
